Statement of Purpose, and Important Terms

Word to the Wise was predicated on a desire to discuss journalism — traditional and participatory alike — as it intersects with media criticism, education, and new technology. This aim has since been transformed, as the need later arose to find a space for my more general commentaries on contemporary culture, and the great diversity of discourses arising therein.

All persons are welcome to comment on the blog, but I reserve the right to moderate comments on the basis of non-constructive content. No person has the right not to be offended, but all absolutely have the right to feel safe when posting — with that definition of safety including not being personally attacked by racial, sexist, or homophobic epithets (among many others). Furthermore, every person who posts on this blog deserves to be addressed by the gender identity they use for themselves, so anyone who pointedly or repeatedly calls someone else “him” or “he” when they identify as “her” and “she” (and vice versa) will find those comments removed.

Also, it bears mentioning that I prefer certain terminology when commenting on race- or sex-based discussions:

1) Race-based discrimination can be experienced by anyone, and imposed by anyone.

2) Race-based oppression is only imposed by the dominant race-structure in any particular society — in Western society, that is Caucasian, or “white”.

Therefore, people of all races may experience discrimination at the hands of any other race (or even the same race), but not all persons are oppressed on the basis of race: In my society, that is the exceedingly dubious “privilege” of all non-white persons.

Similarly:

3) Sex-based gender discrimination can be experienced by anyone, and imposed by anyone.

4) Sex-based gender oppression is only imposed by the dominant gender-structure in any particular society — and pretty much everywhere, the dominant gender-structure is male normative.

Therefore, people of all sexes may experience discrimination at the hands of any other sexes (male, female, intersex), but not all persons are oppressed on the basis of sex and gender: In pretty much all human societies, that is the exceedingly dubious “privilege” of all non-male-normative persons.

For this reason, I would prefer if comments avoided using the terms “racism” or “sexism”, because they are so heavily imbued with different definition sets, depending on where you’ve come from elsewhere on the internet. Instead I would be much obliged if you critiqued other writings as “discriminatory” or “oppressive”, depending on which is more context-appropriate.